Hey Walt!..
Good to hear all is going well. I'll be following your progress, as there's a pretty good chance I may be in a similar situation. In trying to get our doctors okay for me to go to our fitness center, the ECG shows AFIB... For me, no prior indication... no fatigue, breathlessness, or even any feeling of the irregular beat. Denied okay, Forward to heart doctor.
From ECG to echocardiogram, which shows the skipped beats.
After looking at the DVD graph of the test, and a 3D pic of the heart, he suggested Warfarin. Some aortic valve enlargement. Long discussion, and a few hours online looking up the prognosis made me decide to hold off for a while... go to aspirin regimen, and go back in three months to look for change.

One of the things that made me decided to wait, was the risk factor for a heart attack... 14%. The other thing that gave me pause, was the discussion about this type of heart attack. It seems that some men actually have heart attacks, which are not lethal... another revelation.

At age 80, the term "out of an abundance of caution" no longer has the same meaning. So, a wait and see. Mid April, another scan and a decision. Thoracic Aorta Aneurysm, below suggested surgery level and with no dissection.

Fortunately the doctor is the acknowledged guru of heart specialists for Central Illinois, and I have great confidence in him.

We do what we must to stay alive, but balance that with down time and calculated risk. In the meantime, beat, beat, beat. bee ee aa t, beat.

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My thoughts too. Evidently there are lots of different types and degrees of afib. Lots of people, like you, don't/didn't know they even had it. With me there was no question something was badly out of kilter - sitting still I was breathing hard, a walk up a flight of stairs left me gasping. It definitely got my full and undivided attention!

Got back home this morning and it was worthwhile staying the extra night at the hotel because the pain had subsided a lot and walking was much easier, no concerns about bleeding either. So, just kickin' back and chillin' for the next week while things heal up.

Bought a new baroque flute today - The shop sent it to me on approval last week and I got together with a friend today to thoroughly test it out. Met his approval and I had already started to like it so I was glad he didn't find a reason to reject it.

My thoughts too. Evidently there are lots of different types and degrees of afib. Lots of people, like you, don't/didn't know they even had it. With me there was no question something was badly out of kilter - sitting still I was breathing hard, a walk up a flight of stairs left me gasping. It definitely got my full and undivided attention!

Got back home this morning and it was worthwhile staying the extra night at the hotel because the pain had subsided a lot and walking was much easier, no concerns about bleeding either. So, just kickin' back and chillin' for the next week while things heal up.

Here's an engineering question: They go to great lengths to assure that there is no ferrous metal in the MRI machine because of the strong magnetic fields. Yet they gave me a pair of headphones to listen to music inside the machine during the ~45 minute procedure. I thought it would be kind of difficult to create sounds without using a ferrous magnet to create the sound waves.

I asked the technician about this. She wasn't sure but thought they did it with air pressure but would ask the engineer the next time one came by. The headphones had the worst tone I've ever heard from headphones of any type and this would account for it.

Anyone know how they get headphones to work inside an MRI machine? (It got real boring and there really wasn't much else to think about during the testing.)

Been a few years since I worked with those, but I believe most of the current entertainment systems for use in MRI use piezoelectric speakers.

I also used an optical microphone from a company that was working on creating an optical speaker. Not sure if they ever got that worked out.

We went to a foodie benefit in the city called Taste of the Nation. The money goes to No Hungry Kid. The event was at the top of the Metreon - so we had some pretty views of the city, especially at night. They had food stations from 40 top local restaurants, plus wineries, craft beer, espresso, gourmet ice cream - just kind of a wild and almost unending assortment of foodie and beverage stations.

DH isn't much of a foodie. He would rather have a beer and a burger from the local sport bar than pureed peas with julienned scallops and geraniums on top. Still it was kind of fun because it is not the kind of event we'd ever been to before, and I'm guessing from DH's beer and burger comment we won't be doing again next year.

__________________Even clouds seem bright and breezy, 'Cause the livin' is free and easy, See the rat race in a new way, Like you're wakin' up to a new day (Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether lyrics, Alan Parsons Project, based on an EA Poe story)

I am a docent on a tourist railroad in California. I work the caboose, and help people get up into the cupola for a great experience, as well as telling them the history of the line and the caboose.. I had a grandfather and grandson on one leg, and found out that the boy's dad was a conductor on Union Pacific.

Yesterday was spring cleaning the backyard day. Our winter was so mild that some of the plants didn't die back, so they needed major pruning - the oregano alone threatened to take over the entire garden. Then I raked leaves and cleaned the oak leaves out of the fish pond pump (they drop in March). Topped off the pond and hosed off the furniture. Should have waited - the oaks dropped their "flowers" (ugly green fuzzy things full of pollen) last night.

Today was an early one as our choir sang at both services (normally we just sing at the later service). I feel a nap coming on before fixing grilled rack of lamb and asparagus and leek risotto for dinner, washed down with a nice Pinot Noir.

Happy Easter!

__________________
"One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute." William Feather
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ER'd Oct. 2010 at 53. Life is good.

We went to a railroad museum and took a short ride on a historic train.

__________________Even clouds seem bright and breezy, 'Cause the livin' is free and easy, See the rat race in a new way, Like you're wakin' up to a new day (Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether lyrics, Alan Parsons Project, based on an EA Poe story)

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